Nicolas Flamel and the Sorcerer's Stone
by Delphinus
Summary: An eventual explanation how the Sorcerer's Stone, Nicolas Flamel, and few characters of James and Lily's era came to be. Chapter 1 is on its beta v1.1 as of late.


Disclaimer: All characters are by JK Rowling and I owe it all to her for introducing such wonderful stories. Since this is fanfiction though, I'm sure much of the written will be disproved in book 5 when it comes out.  
  
Note from Author: This is my first fanfic and you may review if you want. I prefer suggestions other than, "This story is really good" although whatever kind of review is fine.  
Chapter 1: Underground Discovery  
  
Fffft! Lily jumped as something quickly zipped by her ear. Remus, who was walking next to her, gasped. Lily pulled the projectile out of the grass. Actually, it was an arrow. She looked at it quizzically and slowly fingered it. Then she looked up and tried to detect the source of the flying object. Her eyes moved around the field, and suddenly she spotted them. James, Perene, and Sirius were standing about thirty feet away, bows and arrows in hand.  
  
"Perene! Sirius! James!" she cried, running over. "Whatever are you doing?"  
  
Remus, not saying anything, but having a peculiar look on his face, followed.  
  
"Sorry Lil and Remy," said Sirius smiling and lowering his bow. He constantly made nicknames up for all his friends and was the only one who could get away with it. In short, he was the practical joker of their gang. "We borrowed these arrows from Pear and.We're trying to." he nudged his elbow towards an object right behind Lily.  
  
Lily spun around and saw it; the Whomping Willow. She saw out of the corner of her eye Remus looking and cringing at the sight.  
  
"Strange it does seem, planted this year," Perene explained, her long golden hair glimmering in the sun.  
  
"We've heard rumors that there is supposed to be some sort of secret entrance by the tree," James added.  
  
"Really?" Remus butted in. "I-I've never heard of those rumors." While saying this, his face turned a light shade of red. Although Lily did, the others did not seem to notice.  
  
Lily watched as Sirius drew an arrow and let it go. It soared across the sky and was about to land on one of the branches of the tree. Suddenly, a large, perhaps what Lily could only describe as an 'arm' flew out and the arrow was gently flung into the grass beside the tree.  
  
"Drat," muttered Sirius. "How are we supposed to keep all of its boughs from moving?"  
  
He turned back to Lily and Remus. "Want a try?" he asked.  
  
"I-" Remus quickly muttered, "I just realized I forgot to write my Defense Against the Dark Arts paper. Be back shortly." He gave a small smile and hurried back towards the school.  
  
Lily hesitated and wondered if she should follow him. After all, it was Remus' favorite class and he never failed to forget anything in it, much less a paper. But, she shrugged it off as one of Remus' strange quirks, for he was downright mysterious sometimes, and turned towards Sirius. She looked at what he was holding. Lily had never seen a real bow much less shoot one.  
  
"Uhh. sure," said Lily after realizing that she had no other things to accomplish on a Saturday morning. She dropped her bookbag in the grass and took the bow from Sirius.  
  
"So," she asked. "Where did you guys get all of this stuff anyway? I mean, it's a bit strange that well, people own bows and arrows."  
  
"It's all Pear." Sirius grinned. "You know, she's got a collection of these, . she loves the medieval period and all."  
  
Perene smiled at Lily and nodded.  
  
Sirius handed Lily an arrow. She studied it. Indeed, it was handmade and very light.  
  
"Made in the fourteenth century," Sirius said. "Isn't that right, Pear?"  
  
"Yea," Perene sighed, "and of the Willow quality. Not many left these days, sadly."  
  
Lily studied Perene. Perene was quite a strange girl in her own self, though. Although dressed in modern clothing, she was obsessed with the Middle Ages and often spoke in a strange dialect for hours. Also, she often referred to the present as "these days."  
  
Without further ado, Lily raised the bow and pulled as hard as she could on the string. The arrow had barely been drawn back. Concentrating all her strength, Lily was finally able to pull the arrow back a few more centimeters, but before she could aim, the arrow slipped out of her hand and flew into the air. Lily was surprised at the incredible speed, but the arrow was traveling much lower than that of Sirius'. In fact, it looked like it was barely going to hit the bottom of the trunk.  
  
Sighing, Lily slowly picked up her bookbag and started turning towards school. She was going to look for a less embarrassing activity for a Saturday morning, like perhaps checking on Remus. After walking for about five paces, "Lily!" Sirius called.  
  
Lily spun around waiting for the banal sarcastic comment that would come out of his mouth. Instead, he had a look of utter surprise on his face.  
  
"Nice work Lil," he said, grinning. "Looks like you've stopped the tree."  
  
Not believing it, Lily turned and looked at the willow. Indeed, the thrashing of the tree's limbs had stopped. In fact, it looked frozen, like a stone. Even the leaves were not moving with the wind.  
  
Lily's mouth dropped open and her bag fell back into the grass. Perene ran over and gave her a hug.  
  
Bow and arrow still in their hands, James and Sirius slowly and cautiously approached the tree. Lily and Perene apprehensively followed behind.  
  
Summoning their wits, all four of them ran over and touched the trunk of the tree, shutting their eyes in case of a flying blow. None came. They got up and looked at Lily's arrow. Sirius was about to pull it out when, "Look!" James was bent down on the ground staring at something. "It's. It's a door handle!"  
  
The three of them bent down with him.  
  
"Yea," Perene confirmed excitedly. The handle of the door was sticking out of the grass, right at the base.  
  
James reached his hand, grasped the handle, and slowly tugged.  
  
A circular patch of grass of about one meter wide came off with the handle. Now, in front of their amazed eyes, was a tunnel that went down into the ground.  
  
Sirius sniffed at the hole.  
  
"Freshly dug," he commented. "Looks like it was done about the time we arrived at school, about three weeks ago."  
  
They all looked at each other, excitement glowed in their eyes.  
  
"Well," James said. "We do have a whole Saturday to spend!"  
  
Sirius, grinned at Perene, "Care to invite your brother along?"  
  
He was, of course, referring to Peter Pettigrew, another first year. Yet, Lily thought that they were like water and fire. Peter was not at all like his older sister. Perene Pettigrew was certainly brighter. Her arrival was a mystery to the Pettigrews, a prestigious wizarding family. She came around one month old on their door sporting the note, "Thy faerie flies." Nobody could decipher what it meant, but being kind, the Pettigrews had simply took her in under the name of Perene for she had no name. The news was well hidden and many simply thought that Peter, her younger brother, was simply the odd egg. After all, Perene and her brother had a very good relationship with each other and suspicion soon died out.  
  
"Nay," she smiled, "He's probably busy munching." She smiled affectionately.  
  
With that, Sirius slowly slid himself into the hole. James took his wand and slowly followed after murmuring "lumos." Perene followed, with some extra arrows in her hand. Lily looked around to see if anyone was watching. Her eyes scanned the doors and saw Snape, one of the more annoying Slytherins hanging by the door. Looking around the tree, she decided it was best to clear away the evidence. Lily quickly pulled out the arrow from the trunk of the tree, grabbed the bow, and crawled into the hole before a branch could throw a punch at her.  
  
Lily spied James' wand bobbing up and down ahead, giving just enough light for her to navigate correctly. The tunnel, it turned out, was very small and bumpy. Sliding was impossible and walking was as well. Lily finally found herself walking half-bent, her hair brushed on the ceiling every once in awhile. The half-bent walking seemed to take forever. The tunnel kept on lowering itself until Lily had a crazy thought that it might just as well be a tunnel under the North Sea into France. They would probably emerge from a sewer on some crowded French avenue.  
  
Finally, after walking for what seemed like an hour, Lily heard Sirius' voice and Perene's sigh of relief.  
  
" I see light!" Sirius' voice echoed down the tunnel.  
  
To her relief as well, the tunnel began to slope upward. After a few minutes, she could see real sunlight starting to pour into the dark tunnel. Also, the passage started to rise. Pretty soon, Lily could stand up again and walk. Abruptly, the hard packed soil floor became wooden, and James said "Nox," turning his wand off.  
  
Light was softly filtering into the small house they were standing in. There was not a piece of furniture in sight and the house smelled of new sawdust. Strangely, the windows were boarded, but crudely so that light was still able to enter into the house. It almost felt like a newly erected haunted house; even the door was boarded with a long piece of wood. There was only one set of staircases in the room and it was leading up.  
  
"Lil, Potter, Pear!" Sirius' voice called from above the stairs.  
  
Lily took the stairs and was followed closely by James. On the landing, there were only two doors and one of them was ajar. Lily hurried to the open door and looked inside. She opened her mouth, surprised.  
  
Inside, there was a simple four poster bed and a small nightstand. But, that was not what surprised Lily. On the bed, nightstand, and scattered on the floor were things that she had never seen in her lifetime and if she did, it was probably in a museum.  
  
"Oy," gasped Perene, staring at everything. She approached an old broom leaning against the wall. Her hand gently waved over the fading golden letters on it, as if it were fragile as dust. "The Willow," she said in admiration. "First broom ever."  
  
Sirius, not as careful, held a jeweled sword and scabbard in his hand. "Can you believe it? It's the sword of Gryffindor!"  
  
"This, this." said Lily fingering a beautiful necklace with a creamy colored stone embedded inside. ". no wonder it's guarded."  
  
James had stopped looking around and was now staring at a piece of parchment on the bed.  
  
"Look," he said motioning Sirius, Perene, and Lily over.  
  
All three of them huddled around the piece of paper.  
  
To my dear colleague Albus- Thank you for letting me temporarily store some of my artifacts here while I am moving. I have heard that you will need this house for other purposes so I will be moving these things away in two days. Thank you for your willingness to help others.  
  
"I wonder who owns so many artifacts," Lily said. The note had been signed but was in unrecognizable scrawl.  
  
She smiled and put on the necklace she was holding and approached a strange mirror with etched symbols on the sides in a corner of the room. Sirius was already standing in front of it.  
  
"Look!" he cried. Sirius seemed to be mesmerized by his own reflection. "I.I'm famous. Wow, look at all the wizards taking pictures of me." He peered closer at a corner of the mirror. "And, look at that witch,. boy is she cute!"  
  
"What big ego you have, Sirius," Perene laughed from the other end of the room, scarcely turning. She was examining an old map of an island.  
  
Lily peered into the mirror but only saw Sirius' reflection.  
  
"Uh. sorry but, I only see your reflection," Lily muttered.  
  
"This must be a magic mirror then." James approached the mirror as well.  
  
"This, this must show the future!" Sirius grinned. He brushed his hair back and continued to stare.  
  
"Well, I don't really want to know my future." Lily said absentmindedly because at that moment, another item caught her eye.  
  
It was an old luxurious container, and it looked like a jewelry box. Lily had a certain strange connotation with jewelry boxes that she had with no other object. She had always wanted one as a girl, especially one of those with a twirling ballerina in it.  
  
Lily remembered her sixth birthday when her parents had bought her a very expensive one from Paris. In the end, Petunia, her sister, had become angry with her, as she did often, and threw it down though the second floor window of their home and onto the sidewalk. The box had shattered instantly and Lily had cried for days.  
  
Gently, she opened the box and gasped in delight at the ballerina spinning around in it. There was a cute little mirror inside too and Lily saw her reflection, beaming. She hummed with the music and looked down. Funny, there were no ring holders or necklace drawers. Instead, there were four knobs inside. She studied them closely, and saw etched on separate knobs were the letters "t" "d", and "p." She slowly turned the "d" knob and watched a counter ticking below it. Strange characters were displayed on the counter, but now were changing extremely fast. She continued to turn the knob hoping it would click and a secret treasure inside the box would be revealed. The ballerina was still dancing, but Lily could tell that the song was going to end soon. She would turn the music knob and have it play again. Holding one hand on the box, Lily took her other and brought it down under the box. She soon felt the knob and heard it turn as she turned it with her hand. She let go, of the knob and looked at the ballerina again. It was unaffected by the box and the music kept on slowing down. A slight amount of fear filled Lily as she wondered what was wrong. She wanted to take her hand off the music box, but suppose it disappeared? She would be in a tremendous amount of trouble. Lily quickly shut the box, hoping to stop the music, but it kept on playing. Scared, with one hand still on the box, she turned around and called, "Guys, I." All three of them turned around and looked at Lily. She could now hear the last note of the song playing. Lily watched as James picked up a bow and a few arrows and sprinted towards her along with Sirius and Perene. The note was ending now and the room suddenly became a blur. Suddenly, Lily felt three hands slam across hers as the room spun around faster and faster. She saw for some reason, Sirius looking terrified. Yet now, Lily was feeling really queasy because there seemed to be so many colors flying by. She closed her eyes, but it felt even worse. She turned her head slowly and saw Sirius, James, and Perene all looking quite bewildered. They all had their hands on the box. The colors around them were flying past so fast that it felt like they were traveling through a long twisting tunnel. After about two full minutes, which seemed like an hour, the blurring had slowed down. Suddenly, she fell, and her body slammed into the ground. She smelled green grass and also. blood. Her nose had started to bleed. She slowly moved her finger towards her face to stop the bleeding when.  
  
Suddenly, she was tugged violently forward. She looked up and saw that James was frantically pulling on her arm. He was also muddy and had scraped one of his elbows.  
  
"Quick," he called, tugging on her so hard it felt like her arm was going to fall off. He was looking horrified at something behind her back. With her remaining strength, Lily slowly pulled herself up and stumbled on the grass. In front of her, Perene and Sirius both stumbled as well. They approached a very tiny house on the top of the hill and James lightly pushed her inside. Being the last in, he hurriedly shut the door and latched it. Judging by the smell, they were in,. an outhouse. That was the last thing Lily smelled before she lost consciousness. 


End file.
